Sunday, November 8, 2009

From overclock "virtual" Mac

Mac OS 10.3, 10.4 and 10.5 (not tested under 10.2), it is possible to easily change the information in "About this Mac", visible in the Apple menu in the top left of your screen. This information is on the CPU frequency (in MHz or GHz depending on your processor) and the amount of installed RAM (in MB or GB). Thus, for example, can change a processor PPC G4 1Ghz cons an Intel Core 2 Duo 2 ggz, and move the RAM to 512MB to 4GB with a few clicks!

Firstly, we must find the file that contains this information, then go to the folder /System/Library/CoreServicesand view the contents of the package "loginwindow". Then, with TextEdit, open the file "AboutThisMac.string" (remember to make a copy of this file before editing) located in Contents/Resources/English.lproj. It is he who provides information of interest. To change the processor on a computer with a single processor, look for the line where is written "ABOUT_BOX_SINGLE_PROCESSOR_FIELD_FORMAT" = "%@";

Here you can put instead of% @ of the information you want. If your Mac has an overall dual-processor, it will find the line "ABOUT_BOX_MULTIPLE_PROCESSORS_FIELD_FORMAT" = "%@";

The line "ABOUT_BOX_MEMORY_FIELD_FORMAT" = "% @% @"; control information on the amount of RAM. Replace% @% @ in what you want.

Obviously, we do expect to see performance increase our Mac;) But the handling at least had the merit of making us better aware of the intricacies of our preferred system, or even impress friends.